The Key to Running a Social Media Account is Communication

A few good images, a couple testimonials, a contest once-in-a-while, some funny posts here and there; these will all aid your social media page into becoming the successful monster you want it to become. By being consistent with your posting, never deviating too far from the brand, and establishing a relatable identity, you, too, can launch and manage a social media page with a reach in the thousands.

However, it’s much easier to do this when you’re an in-house social media manager. If you’re directly hired by a company to manage a social media page, it is far easier to take pictures and record videos of daily doings, as well as record testimonials from clients, since you’re always there. That is the one social media page you run and you do so by showcasing your company’s identity on a daily basis.

But what about for the social media manager at a marketing company? What about the community manager that runs several social media accounts, all for different brands? It’s far more difficult to build an identity when you’re not in-house. You don’t have the luxury of being within that company’s walls all day, taking in what the company is about and constantly taking appealing pictures and videos that make readers say, “Hey, there’s a human element to this company. I can relate to being a human.”

With marketing companies that have social media managers, there is a constant need for communication between the community manager, account manager, and the account itself.

Without the account and the account manager, the community manager is left on their own to decipher what makes this company unique and what sets this company apart from its competitors. Without the community manager, the account and account manager are left to promote their own business, without having a grasp of how social media works.

There is a constant need for communication, and that’s exactly where the problem lies for marketing companies that house community managers. These accounts are too busy to constantly relay and answer the demands of community and account managers. After all, they have a business to run. It’s the responsibility of both the account and the marketing company to establish a consistent connection that results in the distribution of useful information for the social media page.

Try and set up a meeting or two per month. Account and community managers can report their findings and what they need, accounts can do what they can to answer the whims of the company they hired to make their business excel, at least from a social media standpoint.

Social media isn’t as easy as it may seem. Unless you’re an established company that is ubiquitous and prominently known outside of social media, it’s going to be difficult to differentiate and separate yourself from the tens of millions of other pages that are all trying to do the same thing. The only way to separate yourself is to establish a recognizable identity. Because if you’re posting generic posts, no matter how hilarious they may be, you’re still doing the same thing everyone else is doing.

Ask for pictures. Better yet, take time to go to the company’s location and take as many pictures and videos and ask for as many customer testimonials as you can. If the account itself is too busy to do the work, you do the work for the company by going above and beyond the call of community managers. Don’t be afraid to do more than what your job tells you. Even if you’re not making more money then, your work and commitment will be recognized, even if it may not be seen through social media statistics at first.

Just like with any job: you get out what you put in. If you go above and beyond by going out to the company’s location, or aggressively try to set up a meeting between you and the account itself, it’ll show. That type of commitment to your work is only going to help you in the long run. The key, however, is to continue doing so.

To become a widely-known brand, you have to be able to speak transparently about your brand. Whether it’s through a social media page or a billboard or a radio spot, your company has to project itself and its values to potential customers. Otherwise, you’re just generic and vanilla, and everybody would rather have more than just vanilla when there’s so much available out there.

So, those who manage accounts and social media pages, and those who are the accounts themselves, make an effort in your social media page to show what your company is about. You may not have an in-house community manager, but you still have community managers you hired that require your assistance when necessary and want your company to succeed. If the social media page doesn’t succeed, it reflects poorly on them and it’ll show through the numbers and variety of posts.

Run a clothing company? Take pictures of clothes in the store. Chocolate company? Pictures of chocolate please. Airport? Let’s see some appealing pictures of planes and videos of them taking off and landing. Give the people what they want to see: a transparent look into your company that they would never get without the aid of social media.